24 Hour Ultra Run race recap – An Amazing Race Experience

The Race Experience of a Lifetime.
This was by far one of the most amazing race experiences I’ve ever done. I’ve run dozens of 5Ks, a few 10Ks, a half marathon, one full marathon, and five 50Ks. But this, well this was the race that showed me what my body is capable of and what it truly feels like for your body to feel complete fatigue. It’s one thing to say, “I couldn’t run another mile” but in this case it was “I couldn’t walk another mile”. I’m going to do my best to describe this experience in detail. I hope it will be helpful for those of you who maybe considering one in the future, and for those of you who just want to get a better understanding of why the heck I would do something as crazy as run for a solid 24 hours. Enjoy. 🙂

I am going to break this race recap down into sections to make it easier for you to skim through some sections if you would like.

About the race itself
24 Hour Ultra Run for Cancer takes place at Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton, Virginia. The race starts at 7AM April 20th and ends 7AM April 21st . The course is a flat non-technical trail that loops around 3.75 miles of the park. Each time you run around you pass the start point/loop point you tell them your bib number so that they can mark you down for a lap. No chip time, it was all manual. There were multiple volunteers taking shifts to do this. They did an excellent job and were very nice. There were two signup options for the race, individual or team. The team option allowed a team of up to 12 people and the milage is added together collectively. If you are on a team you are still counted towards the individual results too.

My invitation to this race
This race was not even on my race list for 2013. It was about 6-7 weeks before the race that I received an invitation on twitter from my buddy Brian Burk (@Cledawgs). So, that means that this race was only four weeks after Gator Trail 50K and two weeks after Mountains to Sea 50K. Brian wanted me to be part of his team and at that time I think he only had 6-8 people and was needing more. I spoke to Paul (my running buddy) and we both decided to accept the challenge. Our team name was called #TeamRun4Life. We ended up with a full team of 12 members, and they were some awesome team members at that. – more details about our team below.

Training
Ok, so this is the part that experienced 24 hour runners will shake their heads and say, “not recommended”. But I’m not an experienced 24 hour runner and I just wanted to see how far I could run, I knew I could do 31 miles, I’ve done that 5 times now at 50K races. As for proper training for distances beyond 31 miles, I didn’t really have that, but the multiple 50Ks I had run weeks prior were enough to get me by. Here are some of my runs leading up to the 24 hour just to give everyone a glimps of what kind of milage my legs had on them prior to race day.

As you can see from my mileage leading up to the 24 hour run I was not ready to run 24 hours. Other than 50K races, I was not prepared for anything beyond the 6-7 hour kind of distances. This is not your typical training schedule for a 24 hour ultra marathon race.

Fuel plan for race day
I packed my typical stuff for a 50K; gels, energy bars, coconut water, water, Nuun tabs, but I also planned to bring a few new things to try. I figured that I would get bored of gels and Nuun tabs after a while. So I asked my wife to prepare some boiled new potatoes, PB&J, apple sauce, a few bananas, turkey wrap, and to get me coffee. The coffee was a big hit, and I was fortunate that there was a Starbucks close to the park that she could go to from time to time during the day. I ended up drinking 3 or 4 cups of coffee throughout the day. Here is the full list of items I ate during the race, in no particular order: (some of these things the race provided and some were given to me by our team’s support crew)

Shoes and Gear
I packed 4 sets of running outfits for the race. My initial plans were to change clothes completely ever 6 hours. So at the 6 hour, 12 hour, 18 hour I would change. I kept to this schedule fairly well. I think this helped me feel better and helped me not have any major issues from blistering or chaffing. I also had 3 pairs of shoes. The Peregrine 2 Saucony trail shoes ended up being my favorite pair. I purchased them just a few weeks before and only had about 10 miles on them. I ended up wearing them the majority of the day. Needless to say, they have some miles now and are broke in.

As for water and gels I wore my UltraSpire Spry vest. I’ve been using this vest since December and have since used it for four 50K races. I no longer carry my water belt and use just the vest. I pack one bottle in the front pocket and fill up the water pouch with about 17oz of water. I try to use the water bottle the most and fill up at stations. This worked well since each lap was 3.75 miles and they had a water jug at the half way point and tons of water at the finish/start line.

iPhone and RunKeeper
I use my iPhone with RunKeeper to track my runs, so the only issue I had to figure out was how to keep my iPhone charged for 24 hour with GPS running the entire time. I already use a Mophie battery case but even that is not enough. I had to figure out a way to charge the Mophie and iPhone at the same time. I put this into practice a few weeks before at the Mountains to Sea 50K race. I purchased an extra external portable Mophie charger and kept it in my left front vest pocket. Once my iPhone and Mophie case fell below 20% I would use the external Mophie to charge them both back to full charge. I was using the smaller of the two external Mophie’s so it would usually only charge to 80-90% with the iPhone 5. Once I drained the external down I would drop it off at the drop zone and charge it. One of our team members had setup a drop cord and power strip, this was all I needed to stay charged all day long. Every 3-4 laps around I would stop pickup my external charger and plug in my iPhone. Yep, I had a USB wire running out of my vest pocket over to my iPhone that was attached to an armband on my left arm. I cycled the power of my iPhone 5 as many as 16 times during the 24 hour race. RunKeeper tracked the entire thing, I was impressed it worked.

Support Crew
The support crew was a critical part of the race. I was fortunate to having my wife (@amandawife) and three of my daughters at the race to help me. They ran some laps with me and brought me food and coffee. The coffee played an important role in the late hours of the race.

Ally Speirs was supporting there Steve but anytime I stopped at the campsite area she was there and was very helpful.

Team Run4Life
Our team was made up of 12 runners. The team was made up of 12 amazing runners; Steve, Paul Lloyd, Cara, Kelly, Jon, Chris, Michael, Matt, Kim, our team captain Brian and myself. I ran the majority of the race with my running buddy Paul. I also ran a few laps with Lloyd, Cara, & Kim. I appreciate the support from each one of our team members. All of the runners on our team were very supportive and helped keep me motivated throughout the run.

The run strategy
So going into my first 24 hour run I knew I would need to pace myself very carefully. I decided to try a run-walk pace where I would run 4 miles then walk to the hour mark. This would give me plenty of time to rest and recover before I begin running again. At an 11 min per/mi pace we would finish 4 miles at 44 minutes and would have 16 minutes of walking. A 16 min per/mi walking pace would help me get one more mile in before the hour was completed. This strategy worked well at first, but it’s amazing how quickly 4 miles of running was not easy when you get 6 or even 12 hours into the run.

The run
The first 30 miles were like any other 50K race I had done before, maybe better since Paul and I were pacing with our planned run strategy. The 30-50 miles were not as easy but our average pace only dropped from 13:05 to 13:36. Our run strategy of run 4 miles and walk to the hour mark worked quite well up to mile 50 or 12 hours into the run. We would use the walk breaks times for when we would stop at the checkpoint and get food, water, and even change clothes. I changed clothes 3-4 times during the run.

Beyond 50 miles
So the strategy worked up to the 12 hour point (50 miles), but after that Paul and I agreed that we would switch it up and run 3 miles then walk to the next hour. This plan worked for a few hours but before long the walking ended up being the majority and running, well I wasn’t even sure if running was ever going to happen again that day.

Paul and I were no longer pacing together once we reached 60+ miles. My legs were hurting so bad that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to run any longer and Paul was still able to. I never paced with Paul again, I would see him in passing from time to time but that was about it. From there I paced with Lloyd, Cara & Kim. Sometime around mile 67 I stopped after passing the 17 or 18th lap. It was at that point that I thought I was done. My legs and body hurt everywhere, I was very tired, and worst of all I had some really nasty and painful blisters on my left foot. Kim was who helped me get going again, she gave me some mole-skin for the blisters on my foot and suggested that I change clothes again. This was the longest break I took during the entire day, but it was worth it. I didn’t feel awesome when I started back again, but this time I had one goal in mind…. 75 MILES!!!

Lloyd, Cara and I started off to our last two laps, limping, hobbling, walking slowly but we had our eye on the goal. Lloyd and I were both on the same lap, Cara on the other hand, who seemed to be feeling a good bit better than we were was somewhere around 52 miles. Lloyd had a bad limp and was complaining about his foot hurting (he later found out that he ran the last few laps with a stress fracture to his ankle – OUCH!!!). These last laps were lasted for an eternity. It didn’t feel like 3.75 miles, it felt like 13 miles. When we finished we walked over to our tent area and I refilled my water and I ate another espresso cookie. I looked over at Lloyd and I was thinking, I want to sit down… and before I could suggest it, he said; “let’s get this thing finished!” I was thinking, dang! can’t I get a break! He was right, we needed to just get it over with. So we marched on.

The last lap
I noticed within the first half mile into the lap that I was pacing a bit faster, and kept drifting in-front of our little group of 3. I would love to take a minute here and try to describe what my mind was going through, but I really don’t know how to describe it. I still hurt, and I hurt everywhere, but there was something else. I guess it was my mind knew that it was almost over, just a few more miles to reach 75 miles. I was 21 hours into this 24 hour race, I passed the 50K distance, I passed 50Miles, and was headed for 75! For the first time I pulled my earbuds out of my Spry vest pocket and popped them in my ears. I turned on one of my running playlists and pretty much stopped thinking about the pain and kept moving. When I finally saw the half mile marker before the lap was finished I started into a slow jog. It started slow and wobbly, but the more steps I took the faster it became. Looking back at my RunKeeper stats I later realized that I was pacing a flat 9 min/mile pace for the last quarter mile to the finish. It was an awesome feeling when I passed the checkpoint for the final lap, it was finally over. I was done! I ran 75 miles just under 22 hours.

Photos during the race
We passed the 50K (31 mile distance) just under 7 hours. I was still feeling good at this point in the race.

My first 50Miler was passed under 12 hours. Had some “pacers” join me for some of these laps. It was great having Amanda(my wife) and some of our kids there. Awesome support!!! 🙂

75 Miles completed just under 22 hours

Our team’s tent.

The trail

Team Run4Life won!
These are the stats for our team. We finished with a total of 788 miles all together, over 100 miles further than the second place team. We crushed it! Amazing job Team Run4Life.

My finish time and distance:
75 Miles – Time: 21:57:43

Post Recovery
Immediately after the race I packed up my stuff and got some much needed sleep. I think it was around 5 or 5:30 am. I only slept for a few hours before getting up and eating the breakfast buffet at the hotel. So glad we stayed at the hotel because breakfast was great after running for so long. After eating I went back to the room and slept some more. The drive home later that afternoon was not too bad, I thought I would be more sleepy or hurting more, but it wasn’t as bad as I had expected.

I didn’t do any running or workouts that day (Sunday) or the following day. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings I ran about 3 miles each day on a trail. I wouldn’t say that it felt good, but each day it felt better and better. By the second week I was back to running and crossfit workouts. 14 days afterwards I ran 15 miles on a trail. That was a bit much, and I had to wait another 7 days or so before I ran again. Something with my hip and the back of my heel. At the time of writing this i’m still having a little trouble with my right heel, but it’s not stopping me from running.

What’s Next
I’ve got two races coming up June 8th. A wilderness triathlon (Bike/Kayak/Run) in the morning followed by a 50Miler that starts the same day at 6pm. I’m sure that will be worth blogging about. 🙂

Congratulations to you and all the team! I cannot imagine this at all.

Jenni ortman
June 5, 2013

Nathan,
Seriously I’ve been trying to read this recap for 3 hours! I’ve been so busy when I opened it on twitter that I left the blog open until I could read it!
I’m SO glad I read the entire recap! There are a lot of things you mentioned that I had NOT even thought about! Me, Kelly and Michelle and another twitter friend Liz are all running the north coast 24 hour endurance race and there were a lot of great tips! One thing I wasn’t thinking about was, which of the 4 of us is going to drive home after the 24 hour?! Duh?!! Okay now seriously rethinking about hav

Jenni ortman
June 5, 2013

Oops! Hit send before I was done! Anyway I think us girls may need someone to drive us home and go for hot coffee, and charge my phone! Lol I need to look into something to charge without the need of electricity! Thx for all the great ideas!
Jenni ortman (@skidoorn2000)